Attleboro facility to pay $200K for wastewater case

BOSTON – The owner of an Attleboro-based industrial-wastewater-treatment facility has agreed to pay up to $200,000 and make major modifications to its treatment system to resolve allegations that the company failed to properly process and treat nonhazardous industrial wastewater, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced in a statement.
According to the complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, NewStream LLC violated Massachusetts state laws and regulations by unlawfully diluting the concentration of pollutants in the wastewater instead of removing them through proper treatment. The complaint alleges that, as a result, a higher mass of pollutants, especially metals, were likely discharged to the Ten Mile River, which already suffers from high levels of pollutants that exceed existing Massachusetts water-quality standards.
The complaint alleges that NewStream discharged wastewater with high concentrations of pollutants, which interfered with the plant’s operation. The case was referred to Coakley’s office after the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection discovered that NewStream, in response to enforcement orders intended to prevent further interference, was unlawfully shipping tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater by truck to publicly owned wastewater treatment plants in New Bedford and Cranston for disposal, after accepting more than it could legally discharge to the Attleboro plant under its permit. •

No posts to display